First it was the political opposition, then it was the economic (oligarchich) and (corrupted) labour opposition, and the last option was the foreign (US administration) opposition. Chavez government is now experiencing the power and chanllenge of the religious opposition as the newest (the last?) chance to overthow him and the people of Venezuela from power. It's not strange that this happens since it's well known the clergy has always opposed all popular initiatives. It's necessary to recall the clergy was in power (together with the nobility) in the metropolitan countries (and by extension in all of their colonies), dictating, organizing, blessing and condemning.

But the people started to believe again (in themselves) at the French Revolution, when they, together with their ideological leaders (the bourgoise), toppled the old order and divided the state from the church and sent the nobility that left (the ones who weren't beheaded) to their castles to serve as propaganda decorations of the new system (capitalism) and the clergy left (the ones who weren't burned alive) to their churches to serve as spiritual legitimazers. If they still exist today it's because of their usefulness for the opressors, and not because of the will of God almighty.
But something unfair happened, the bourgoise betrayed the people (the proletarians, the workers, the ones who always give their blood for their freedom and others take credit for that) and things remained the same: a minority dominant class opressing the majority working class. The poor were alone again, and then again looked upward looking for somebody to help or save them. They looked for the clergy to be with them since they still believe their preach, they still believe in their bible, they still believe it's true that God is with the poor and, therefore, that his mediatiors (his priests) are here to be the link between them and their savior.
But the clergy has to obey his master for letting it live and enjoy the priviledges of capitalism, they won't dare to betray the ones who let them live compassionately. The ones who betray this pact are repressed and hidden (as in the case of padre Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua) or die as traitors (as was the case with Monsenor Romero in El Salvador). Other than that you won't find in contemporary human history.
That because it's wrong to say the clergy is against a legitimate government and against people's hopes TODAY in Venezuela, because they've alwas being against the people in Venezuela and all around the world. I still remember the members of Conferencia Episcopal Venezolana (Bishops Main Institution) blessing a former president's lover (or barragana, as one of the politicians of that epoch dubbed her) and saying nothing when he (Jaime Lusinchi, who ruled from 1984 to 1989) divorced while he was still in office to abandon the presidential residence (La Casona) to live with his dear colombian private secretary Blanca Ibanez. I remember this barragana buying the priests blessing with checks, donations and bribes to keep their mouths shut and say nothing about the students dying on the streets during those days demonstrations against privatizations, low wages, incomplete budgets for the universities and the exhausting external debt.
The religious leaders of Venezuela said nothing when another president (Carlos Andres Perez, 1990-1993) had another lover in Miraflores (presidential office) while married with the official first lady (Blanca Rodriguez de Perez), and of course said nothing when Perez told the troops to kill thousands during El Caracazo (deadly riots against neoliberal policies in 1989). And that's just the political side of the religious cowardice of venezuelan bishops, archbishops and cardinals, not to mention their drugs and sexual scandals from the past.
The catholic church in Venezuela owns and runs schools, foundations, hospitals, universities, publishing companies, bookshops, newspapers, radio and TV stations, large amounts of land and banks. Nothing has been touched. Does that looks like a spiritual institution for you? For me the catholic church in Venezuela is just another basic capitalistic institution that helps the bourgoise and themselves stay in power and exploit the working people. The problem is that working opressed people realizes once and for all the church and most of its leaders will never help them, and that only themselves, together with their legitimate elected leaders will liberate and emancipate them from all kinds of slavery.